I built the two-tone mid-century modern nightstand with a custom match stain and an integrated charging port from start to finish.
The nightstand is made from white oak. The client wanted a two-toned look, so I stained the top, sides, and drawer fronts with a custom blend to match the rest of the bedroom furniture, such as their bed with queen size mattress. They also wanted better cord management, so I installed an integrated USB outlet into the back of each nightstand, with a pass-through for charging cables. The drawers are, of course, mounted on soft-close drawer glides. I think it turned out to be a nice representation of the mid-century modern style.
In the video, I show my build process on how it was constructed.
Today, I want to walk you through building these gorgeous two-tone mid-century modern nightstands with a waterfall edge design. Fair warning: we’re working with white oak here, which is absolutely beautiful but stupid heavy. You’ve been warned!
Getting Started: Milling the Lumber
First things first, the client approved our stain samples and design, so it’s time to dive into building the outer case. Since these white oak boards are crazy heavy with rough-sawn edges, I’m not going to torture myself by hefting the whole thing across the jointer right away. Instead, I’ll start with my track saw to get a straight edge, then mill it down to the final thickness before hitting the jointer. Trust me, your back will thank you.
Here’s a little tip: I haven’t invested in a longer track yet, so I do this in stages. I use my level as a straight edge to mark out a straight line from end to end, then line up my track to that mark. Cut one side, move the track, cut the other half. Done!
Once you have that nice straight edge ripped, it can ride safely against the table saw fence without getting pushed around or pinched. Much safer for ripping to the final width.
Prepping the Rails
Those strips I cut off at the table saw? They’re actually wide enough for the rails I need for the nightstand’s structure. I’ll cut them to length, then re-saw them in half to get the material thickness I need. Nothing goes to waste!
The Heavy Lifting: Milling Eight-Quarter White Oak
Alright, time for the workout portion of our program. Milling eight-quarter white oak is no joke. To make this safer and easier, I set up a jack stand as a safety rest at the jointer, positioned about a quarter inch lower than the top of the jointer table. This gives me a good starting point to rest the board on, but the boards still reference off the jointer table to ensure they come out nice and flat.
Pro tip: These boards are big, heavy, and unwieldy, so take the time every so often to wax your table. Keep everything moving nicely and smoothly. Oh, and watch out for metal in your boards! I uncovered two nails or chunks of metal while planing. Felt like Matt Cremona for a minute there. Luckily, I had enough thickness to remove, so it wasn’t a problem.
After planing down to thickness, I do one last final cleanup pass at the jointer to make sure everything fits really nicely and tight together with no gaps before glue-up.
Gluing Up the Panels
I spent some quality time with the jointer getting these boards to fit so tightly together that the seams practically disappear. For glue-up, I’m using floating tenons between the joints—more for alignment than strength. The glue is plenty strong to hold it together, but these tenons help keep everything flat and prevent sliding during glue-up.
Creating the Waterfall Edge
Here’s where it gets interesting. I need to cut this into three chunks so they’re more manageable, and I want perfect 90-degree cuts. I’m using the track saw for the initial separation cuts, but here’s the key: I’m NOT setting the track saw to 45 degrees for the miters. Why? Because there’s always a little bit of play in the track saw, so it never comes out to a perfect 45. My table saw, on the other hand, has a dead perfect 45.
So the game plan is: separate the chunks with 90-degree cuts, then cut the 45-degree miters at the table saw. That way I get perfect miters instead of “kind of” perfect miters.
Since I’m only removing a saw blade’s worth of material on that 90-degree cut, and I’ll line up the 45 right to the top edge of that original cut, I’m hardly taking out any wood. Once it’s all glued together, the grain should flow beautifully with very little breaks from up the side, across the top, and down the other side.
Cutting the Miters
Now with my perfectly square 90-degree reference cut, I head to the table saw. The sides are going to be 29 inches tall, so I set the blade at 29 inches. Since the material is an inch and a half thick, I subtract that and move the fence over an inch and a half—giving me 27.5 inches. This should give me a perfect cut right along the corner at 45 degrees.
I’m super careful with measurements here because the more blade width you remove, the less likely the grain is going to match. The goal is to remove just the blade width for a really good grain match.
For the top, I do the same thing: cut it, turn it around, cut the other side. I go super slow because white oak is pretty dense and tough on tools. Most importantly, I keep solid pressure against the fence—the last thing I want is for this to walk away from the fence and turn into a frisbee!
The Bevel Detail
The client approved a half-degree bevel on the front edge. To keep it accurate and lined up at the mitered corners, I use a feather board to make sure everything stays tight to the fence.
Around the bottom edge, there’s a saw kerf decorative detail that needs to wrap around this bevel. Holding this in position as I pass it across the blade would be awkward, so I built a little jig with clamping fins to clamp it down and run it safely across the blade. For the other side, it has to run through backwards since it’s the opposite end.
For the decorative detail on the ends, I just stand the piece up and clamp it to my miter gauge.
Reinforcing with Floating Tenons
Time to reinforce the joints with floating tenons. Before gluing up, I do a test fit to make sure everything goes together nice and square with tight miters. Once I have the test fit together, I can take measurements for the inner supports.
Building the Inner Structure
Now we’re moving on to the inner workings. Remember that material I resawed earlier? I’m milling it down to final size and cutting it to length. I’m also milling material for the shelves—there’s a little cubby hole at the top that needs a shelf.
I measure the width of the inner opening and set up a stop to that width. Then I square up the material and cut everything to length at the same time: the top shelf and the drawer dividers. This way, all the structure is cut to the exact same width, everything glues up tight with no gaps, and I still have perfect miters at the top.
Web Frames for Support
For the supports between the drawers and the bottom support, I build simple web frames using floating tenons. I clamp a clamp (yes, you read that right) to my table to have something to push against, positioned so the end overhangs the bench just a little. This gives plenty of room for the tool to do its thing. Super fast method!
Here’s an important detail: the rail glued to the back of the cabinet and the rail glued to the front have to account for wood movement. So I glue a floating tenon into one side but just stick the floating tenon in the other side. As the cabinet expands and contracts, it can float while still providing stability.
Electrical Access
Since people need to plug in alarm clocks, lamps, and charging ports for phones, I’m constructing a shelf in the back for electrical installation. This requires cutting some dados. While I have the dado blade set up, I also cut the dado for the back of the cubbies, which allows the back to expand and contract.
I drill a hole for electrical cords to pass through to the back where they’ll plug into our hidden outlet, then gently round over the edge at the router table.
For the outlet installation area, I hog out material at the drill press to lighten the load on the router bit, tape down my template, and use a pattern bit to cut it out.
Installing the Top Shelf
I’m using floating tenons to hold the top shelf in place. To help me plunge the mortises, I clamp a board down as a guide—its lip gives me a nice positive stop to hold my floating tenon cutter in place. I work my way down the piece, cutting templates to appropriate sizes and using each template on both the left and right sides of the cabinet. This guarantees everything will be in exactly the same spot for a nice square case.
Pre-Finishing Strategy
Here’s where the two-tone design comes in. The outside gets the dark stain, while the inside faces stay natural wood. But that decorative saw kerf? It’s stained all the way around. I hand-stain it with a brush to work it down to the bottom of the groove, then sand off any excess that spills onto the outside faces after it dries.
I pre-finish the inside faces now because it’s way easier to apply finish when the cabinet’s apart than trying to spray into a tiny box where the gun doesn’t really fit. To protect the glue areas, I mask them off before finishing.
The Big Glue-Up
Time for the main event! I’m using a slow-set epoxy for this assembly because I want plenty of time to get everything together—there are so many parts and pieces. The slow-set epoxy gives me the open time I need to dial everything in before it sets up.
I use a corner clamping method for the miters to ensure nice tight joints. Take your time here—you don’t want to rush this part.
Building the Drawers
Now it’s time to build the drawers. I re-saw pieces so the half-inch thick material becomes the drawer sides, and the eighth-inch slice gets veneered onto plywood for the drawer bottoms. This saves material, maximizes usage, and guarantees the drawer bottoms match the colorway of the drawer sides. Everything stays homogeneous.
After cutting drawer sides to final length and width, I cut a dado along the bottom edge for the bottom panel. Before assembly, I pre-finish everything and tape off the joints—glue doesn’t stick to finish very well!
The Staining Process (Plot Twist!)
Here’s where things get interesting. If you watched my stain-matching video, you might remember there wasn’t any talk about a glaze coat. Well, after reviewing the sample, the client decided they wanted the grain to pop more.
So here’s what I’m doing: working black glazing into the grain of the wood, pushing it into the pores. After it dries, I’ll sand it back so the glaze only remains in the deep pores. This really makes the grain pop and shows off that waterfall effect beautifully—since the grain flows continuously across the top and down the sides.
After sanding back the glaze, I brush on the final stain coat pretty liberally, let it soak in, then wipe off the excess.
Installing Drawer Hardware
I’m using one of my favorite undermount drawer glide systems: the Blum Tandem. These are fantastic, and I have a separate step-by-step video on exactly how I install them if you want more detail.
To align the drawers in the opening, I use spacers that match the planned reveal. I put a little glue on the back of the drawer front, then screw through the pre-drilled handle holes to attach it to the drawer box temporarily. Once the glue dries, I remove those screws and attach the actual handles. Same spacer technique for the bottom drawer, spacing between drawers and along the side.
Final Touches
The last detail is installing the electrical charging outlet in the back of the cabinet. And there you have it—beautiful two-tone mid-century modern nightstands with that stunning waterfall edge!
Final Thoughts
This project definitely takes some time and patience, especially working with that heavy white oak, but the results are absolutely worth it. The waterfall edge really showcases the wood grain in a spectacular way, and that two-tone finish gives it that perfect mid-century modern vibe.
If you tackle this project, take your time with the miters—they’re what make or break the waterfall effect. And don’t skip the test fits! It’s always better to catch issues before the glue goes on.
Happy building, and remember: white oak is heavy, so lift with your legs!
I’m the owner of Benham Design Concepts, a mixed media art studio where I design and build custom furniture and other works of art using wood, glass, stone, and various metals.
In this blog, I talk about the art I create, my journey, and the things I learn along the way.